Is American energy 'independence' possible?

WASHINGTON — Call it President Richard Nixon's revenge.

Amid election-year furor over high gasoline prices, something significant has happened to America's energy outlook. We are steadily reducing our dependence on imported oil — a long-ago Nixon goal. In 1973, he proposed being free of imports by 1980. It didn't happen, and although politicians of both parties frequently echoed Nixon's popular call for "energy independence," most experts considered it a joke.

Production from mature U.S. fields was declining, while Americans' energy thirst increased. Oil imports went from 35 percent of use in 1973 to 60 percent in 2005. As for natural gas, companies prepared to import LNG (liquefied natural gas).

No more. The LNG isn't needed; the United States is approaching self-sufficiency in gas. And in 2011, oil imports fell to 45 percent of consumption, the sixth year of decline. Behind these developments lies a new reality: America's oil and gas reserves are far larger than previously thought. Read More